Page 99 of The Fallen Man
“That sucks,” said Jackson, feeling a pang of sympathy.
“It does. Then her mom dies, and they do the funeral. Then she comes back to New York and tries to go back to school, but then Granger stops paying her tuition and living expenses,” said Pete.
“Jesus, what a prick.”
“Yeah, no shit, because that’s about when her mom’s estate winds up and it turns out she was in debt up to her eyeballs. Pretty sure they are all going after Caitlin now. They are actually one of my stronger leads. I’ve got some calls in. If you want to find someone talk to their collections agency.” Jackson shook his head in disbelief. “We know, thanks to you and Aiden that she goes to see Granger in prison at that point. Not that he did anything to help her.”
“It’s like he went out of his way to be an asshole,” said Jackson. “His assets weren’t frozen at that point. He could have helped her. He just didn’t. What kind of dad does that? I can’t imagine why she would do anything to help him. No wonder she hasn’t come forward. We’ll be lucky if she hasn’t run everything through a shredder. Where’d she go next?”
“We lose her after that. She leaves slash gets kicked out of Columbia. She changes phone number and I think she goes up to the Hamptons to her aunt’s house for a bit. I can’t prove it yet, but I’m closing in.”
“We know that she didn’t stay there though. You were just there.”
“Yeah,” agreed Pete nodding. “But you can’t skip ahead. You have to follow the trail. That’s the system.”
“Well, work the system,” said Jackson. “I’m going to go out to dinner.”
“That does sound like a way better system,” said Pete.
Jackson took out his phone and placed an order for Pete’s favorite Chinese place. Then he texted Pete’s husband, who gave an eye roll emoji about Pete being heads-down in a project but said he’d be there for dinner. Jackson washed his mug and stared at the empty space they’d been using as a storage slash workout area. They could go full multi-media bat cave up in there, but he’d miss the workout equipment. Maybe they could go small bat cave and keep the gym. He went back to the front. Pete had tidied some papers and made some new piles.
“Food will be her in thirty minutes,” Jackson said, as he buttoned his coat.
“What?” asked Pete, looking up from the pile of papers.
“Your food,” said Jackson.
“I haven’t ordered any. I should order some.” Pete patted his pockets and looked around for his phone, which was undoubtedly somewhere under the piles of papers.
“I already did. It’s on the way.”
“Right,” said Pete, squinting at the clock. “I should call John.”
“Also, John said he’d come over and eat dinner with you after he finished grading papers.”
“Oh,” said Pete. “Thanks!”
Jackson shook his head and headed for the car. He liked hiscrew. They were all weirdly obsessive in ways that he enjoyed.
He was looking forward to a restaurant with Caitlin. He’d found someplace perfect. The food was delicious, but the venue was small, so it didn’tfeelexpensive, and she wouldn’t get mad at him when he paid. He’d tried to pinpoint why this dinner mattered. They weren’t going to be doing anything they didn’t always do, but it felt important. Maybe it was the going public factor. The idea that she would have to publicly admit that she was with him gave him a thrill. He parked in the VAR lot and knocked on the side door as instructed.
“Hey Jessica,” said Jackson as she opened the door.
“Hey!” she said, cheerful as always. “She’ll be out in a minute. She’s changing.” She eyeballed him. “Date, huh?”
“Yeah,” he said. Then looked at her barely concealed smug expression. “Just say it. Your head’s going to explode otherwise.”
Jessica giggled, and her face split into a grin. “I’m not saying anything! Except… called it. Three weeks ago.”
“You couldn’t have told me?” he complained.
“Are you kidding? I couldn’t even tellher,” Jessica said, lowering her voice. “She is freaking out about being serious. You’d better treat her right or I will go shovel art on your ass.”
“It’s just dinner,” he said. “And I intend to.”
Jessica went back to grinning like a fiend.
“Whatever,” said Jackson, shaking his head but relieved to see that at least he had the best friend seal of approval.
